During the past week the weather forecast for the the north east of Scotland had been looking a bit grim, but as we were heading over to the north west, it all looked fine. It still looked fine on Friday night when we went to bed, but as we got up on Saturday morning, the forecast had changed and the amber weather warning had been extended. Ah. Sam phoned about ten o’clock and asked if we were on our way and if we could get there any sooner as they would have to cancel the three o’clock sailing but could fit us on the twelve thirty instead. She kindly agreed to delay the sailing to allow us a little extra time to get across and just after one o’clock, we boarded the boat and began our cruise.

It was actually a lovely trip, not too rough and with good light for spotting. As we are later in the year than usual, the nests have all emptied so there wasn’t a huge amount of birdlife, we saw Great Skuas, Shags, Red Throated Divers and a few Comorants. There were three pregnant Grey Seals and a real treat of Common Dolphins! Ian was a star and as we’d made the trip just for his boat trip, he gave us a little extra time to get a good view of the Dolphins.

Moody Torridons

(Spot the Slioch, Beinn Dearg and the Horns of Alligin, I think)

Great Skua

Red Throated Diver

Grey Seals

Trust me, it’s a Common Dolphin fin!

As we’d not had time for a catch up with Sam before boarding, he invited us to their home for tea and cake, which was lovely and Sam baked a fresh cream and raspberry sponge especially. A boat trip and cake, what more could a girl want! We had a lovely time and I look forward to going back next summer (at a more leisurely pace!) and spending more time in one of my favourite places.

3 comments:

Can sympathise with trying to photograph sea life - when we were in Canada a number of years back we were out in a boat off Vancouver Island looking for whales. Trust me your shot of the dolphin is a good one! With the delay on the shutter release of small cameras you never snap what you think you've snapped. I have a lot of splashes and indeterminate grey lumps in my photos. Well done! :)

Hello FWD!Thanks, kind of you to pop along and say so. I love these boat trips, we've been going out with Ian at least once a year for the last six and even if we don't see much, I just enjoy the ride and the view! It's great to get a different veiw of the Torridons, they're just stunning.I have better shots of the Pilot Whale we saw a few years ago on a previous trip, but I was just exceptionally lucky.